With the increasing use of forest biomass, concerns about negative impacts have been raised in the debate. The aim of the study was to find out the attitude of university students towards the energy use of forest-based biomass and how different areas of sustainable forest operations were addressed. The survey was conducted over two years (2018–2019) with both full-time students at university and distance-learning students who study alongside their work. Background information such as gender,...

Lignin is one of the most abundant renewable resources and is a common by-product of paper industry. Lignin with its complex aromatic polymer structure, forms an interesting raw material for obtaining chemicals like catechol, benzene and phenolic compounds. The mildest possible processing of lignin are enzymes like peroxidases and laccases which were used to specifically extract aromatic monomers such as catechol and vanillin. Two different lignins were analyzed, one lignin from Miscanthus and one of...

Households are a big contributor to road transport emissions and there’s travels are closely linked to household activities such as shopping, work, free-time activities, and school. The simulation model was developed to estimate greenhouse gas emissions of household travels done by privet cars. Emissions were estimated as tailpipe measurement using LIPASTO emission units. Activities were estimated base on passenger traffic survey and vehicle fleet structure was estimated from Traficom open data. The simulation model was...

Siberian elm (Ulmus pumila L.) is an energy crop that may work as a source of lignocellulosic biomass to produce bioenergy and bioproducts in marginal agricultural land under low input systems. The aim of this work is to study the effect of varying planting density and water regime on the biomass yield of Elm grown in Short Rotation Coppice (SRC) as energy crop in cycle of four years in marginal agricultural lands in North Spain....

This work, carried out at Research Centre for Industrial Crops of CREA in Rovigo, aimed at assessing the performance of a modified combine header and seed losses during late harvest of 5 hemp varieties. The renewed interest in Italy for hemp cultivation is aimed at seed production unlike the traditional cultivation aimed at fibre. However, it must face the lack of monoecious varieties suitable for Italian environment. In the case of dioecious varieties, traditionally cultivated...

Purpose of this paper is to carry out a performance analysis for an existing direct current (DC) gasifier with an electrical output of 50 kW. Feedstock species are biogenic residues such as landscape conservation wood. Focus of the performance analysis is the determination of the cold gas efficiency. For this purpose, the fuel-specific properties of the feedstock must be investigated and all process-determining parameters must be measured. Based on the achieved data the entire process...

Power Systems with a high share of variable renewable energy (VRE), e.g., the European Union, must face several challenges related to curtailment, flexibility, and system stability. Therefore, the development of new technologies for the decarbonization of the electricity network and the future models of power systems should consider these challenges. In this study, we propose renewable hydrogen, a decarbonized fuel, as an energy carrier (chemical energy storage). In addition, a new model (in development) to...

Biochar is a carbonaceous by-product of thermochemical conversion of ligno-cellulosic biomass. Its application to soil positively influences various soil physico-chemical properties. Biochar high specific surface area and high micro and macro porosity raise the soil water retention and nutrients absorptivity from the soil, enhancing biomass yield. However, biochar itself contains low nutrients amount and its amendment properties could be improved through organic matter addition, rich in microelements and nutrients. This work studies the integration of...

Vine prunings are a very abundant by product of the wine industry and their production can be estimated to be between 1 to 5 ton/year for every hectare. In the view of a decarbonisation and the development of the circular economy this biomass should become an opportunity even if in most of the cases it ends up being a problem. This is due to their common burning in situ that has a huge environmental impact,...

Portable petrol powered generator are very popular around the world. They are used mostly when electrical power from the grid is not available, for example in blackout scenarios, remote areas or for temporary use and they are basically irreplaceable in many cases. The idea behind this work is to substitute the fossil fuel as the energy source of these systems with the syngas produced through biomass gasification, that is a carbon negative energy process in...

The article describes the collection of comprehensive information on crops for energy purposes, including economic and environmental indicators based on a model solution. The applied method is based on a detailed description of conditions for the production of principal crops covering technological procedures of crop production, including individual working operations. The production inputs and outputs are derived from the register of local soil and climatic conditions in the Czech Republic. Thus, all the operational indicators...

Studying the best practices to reuse wastes of widely used commercial products will allows to give alternatives to linear and shortsighted production chains that engender a large amount of wastes. The pellet mixtures full energy characterization permits to find new energetic classification patterns and identify differences between many biomasses, improving energy production processes. In this present work, energetic characteristics of agro-pellets, produced from pure spent coffee grounds (SCGs) or blended with sawdust were examined. Hence,...

LIFE-DRY4GAS is a demonstrative project that proposes an environmentally sustainable technology solution for the management of sewage sludge generated in a Waste Water Treatment Plant (WWTP). A prototype integrated by a solar dryer, a gasification plant, a gas burner and an Organic Rankine Cycle will be developed and demonstrated in a WWTP. This work aims at the study of solar drying and gasification of sewage sludge at a pilot plant scale in CEDER-CIEMAT’s facilities in...

Dry-purification of the crude bioproducts; ethyl biodiesel and biolubricants, derived from Indian mustard was conducted using natural mineral (clay) and organic (plant issue) adsorbents to define the optimal procedure in terms of temperature, contact time and number of treatment cycles. Adsorbent characterization and the quality of the biofuel and biolubricants, evaluated before and after dry-purification, led to the conclusion that Montmorillonite clay and finely ground Indian mustard stems (particle size of 100 to 710 .m)...

When agriculture is to supply a growing bioeconomy with biomass, straw has been identified as one of residues with the largest potential. As removal of straw from fields will have a negative impact on soil humus development compared with straw incorporation it is important to make sure that a system including straw removal does not negatively effect the long-term soil fertility. As part of the EU-financed project AGROinLOG a Swedish demonstration case was made to...

The present work aims at investigating the valorization of biomass forestry residues by means of experimental analysis on a small-scale open top gasifier. In order to evaluate the effect of high bark content, experimental test have been performed in an open-top gasifier with increasing shares of bark and woodchips and different levels of secondary air supply, used as adjustable parameter for the optimization of the conversion process. Samples have been characterized using standard methodologies for...

The search for different energy resources and the increment of renewable energy share, as well as energy savings and rational energy use are the key points of sustainable energy planning in a low carbon future. Solar energy presents high potential for playing a leading role in this search for sustainable energy, especially with hybrid photovoltaic-thermal solar panels (PVT). However, if a solution based only on renewable energy is desired for providing energy demands of residential...

In Campania Region, the rise in Buffalo heads reared plays an important role in the manure management of the region. Moreover, in order to comply with the European regulation (the National Emission Ceiling), the updating of national emission inventories, as well as the investigation of different fertilizers, manure treatments prior to field application and innovative reducing ammonia techniques, are necessary. Specifically, controlling emissions techniques should help farms both during the storage period and during the...

This study deals with the innovative micro-injection technique, which allows the slurry to be injected at 5 cm deep into the soil with a reduced traction force, a crucial point for the farms. To this purpose, two slurry spreading techniques were compared in laboratory under controlled temperature and humidity conditions: (i) the band spreading application (BS) and (ii) the microinjection application (MI) of a liquid fraction of cow digestate. The slurry spreading was simulated using...

Soil is an important natural resource for agriculture and deserves special attention to possible problems that may arise. Heavy metal contamination of the soil can cause serious problems for the ecosystem in general, with consequent impact on water resources, soil quality, crop yield and human health due to the potential for heavy metal bioaccumulation in the different trophic levels of the food chain. Remediation of heavy metal contamination in soils can be done by using...

The 20/20/20 target for Europe, will lead to an increased use of biomass combustion, e.g. using wood logs and wood pellets. On the other hand, the Air Quality Directive (2008/50/EC) lies down stringent requirements on maximum levels of particulate matter (PM) in the ambient air. Domestic wood combustion emits particulate matter (PM) which are of concern to authorities and the public. Several different methods of PM measurements have historically been used to perform type testing...

Microalgae are regarded as promising feedstock for bioenergy production due to their fast growth rate, high productivity and low nutritional requirements. However, large-scale biomass production for bioenergy currently is not economically viable due to low productivity and high cultivation costs of microalgal biomass. Optimal growing conditions for specific strains must be set up to increase the microalgae productivity. Therefore, in present study we focus on finding the optimal light intensity conditions for three microalgae cultivation...

The objective of the project presented here is to develop an intelligent control algorithm for an energy system consisting of a biogas CHP (combined heat and power), various storage technologies, such as thermal energy storages (TES) and gas storages, and other renewable energy sources, such as photovoltaics. A corresponding algorithm based on the Monte-Carlo method has already been developed at Reutlingen University for CHP units running on natural gas and for heat pumps. The project...

According to recent bioeconomy programs, chemical compounds derived from natural sources will be more available in regions where these compounds can be obtained economically than more expensive synthetic chemicals. In addition, the biorefinery is becoming an important aspect for green chemistry development aimed at ensuring the necessity to achieve the best objectives as favourable as possible from restricted natural resources such as forest biomass. One of the main scope is to generate diversified, innovative and...

Turkey oak (Quercus cerris L.) is a deciduous species characterized by high morphological variability and a widespread distribution range along South-East Europe. The wood of Turkey oak is scarcely considered as industrial lumber and is mainly used as firewood. Biomass pre-processing by heating improves feedstock consistency (mainly loss of water) and thereby improves its energetic efficiency. The main goal of this research was to evaluate how different hydro-thermal treatments effect the high calorific values and...